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Gondola Philadelphia (1776), scratch 1:16 scale

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Gene Bodnar

Mon Oct 19 2015, 08:28am

Registered Member #126

Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20am
Posts: 1776

Rudder
The rudder is made from 3 pieces of 1/8” wood fastened together with 2 wood battens. The battens are 1/32” thick and are fitted into mortises cut into the starboard side of the rudder planks. They are flush with the rudder’s surface. The two battens are secured with 78 clenched nails; thus, on the starboard side, the nail heads are visible, but on the port side, clenched nail ends are visible. Two pintles are inserted into holes for them. The straps around the pintles are made of card, painted black, and glued in place. Dimensional fabric paint suggests the nails in the straps. The rudder sets nicely into the gudgeons, and a hole immediately above the upper strap for a rope pendant attached to prevent the rudder from lifting up and off of the gudgeons. The entire assembly was given a coat of Natural Stain, set in place on the gudgeons, and tied down with the pendant, as shown in the plans.

Tiller
The tiller is cut from ¼” wood. It is square, except for about 1/3 of its forward length, where it is round. It also has a taper from aft forward. A mortise is cut in the aft bottom end for the rudder post, into which the post is glued. It’s given a coat of Natural Stain when completed.

Gary M

Mon Oct 19 2015, 12:24pm

Registered Member #4198

Joined: Tue May 07 2013, 10:50pm
Posts: 902

Gene, I love the clenched nail detail. Again, a superb build! g

teleman

Mon Oct 19 2015, 01:27pm

Registered Member #1925

Joined: Tue Nov 29 2011, 05:32am
Posts: 1394

Look real good Gene. That is different with all the nails in it. The finish is really good. Your boat is coming along nicely.

Gene Bodnar

Tue Oct 20 2015, 05:02pm

Registered Member #126

Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20am
Posts: 1776

The USS Philadelphia carried a 12-pounder at the bow, two 9-pounder on the midship deck, and eight swivel guns around the caprail.

12-pounder at the bow

The carriage. Like most of the wood used in building the gunboat, white oak was also employed on the 12-pounder and 0-pounder gun carriages. Therefore, I used the same finishing technique on the carriages as I did on the boat itself.
In my opinion, it is not proper to use a gray or very dark color to finish the vessel or its gun carriages, especially if you intend on portraying the vessel at the time of its launch. White oak is a light to medium yellowish tan with a slight gray cast. It changes little on exposure to sunlight and air. In addition, a painting of the gunboat by artist and photographer Ernest Haas depicts the boat with a light yellowish tan color. Furthermore, Hoffman’s own model of the boat in the Smithsonian is a similar color. These are reasons why I chose not to use darker stains.
The side pieces of the gun carriage contain cutouts in the outboard bottom for positioning the carriage on the tracks that are bolted to the deck beams at the bow, where the carriage can move without restriction along those tracks.
To assist the modeler in constructing the carriage, Hoffman provides an exploded view of the various parts and how they fit together. He also provides a chart of materials, which indicates that all parts are either white oak or wrought iron.
Make all the parts as shown on the plan, and then glue them together. All wrought iron parts are made from trenails or 16-gauge black wire. Use a Q-Tip to apply stain.

twintrow

Tue Oct 20 2015, 07:28pm

Registered Member #121

Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 04:41am
Posts: 417

Gene, I've always wondered, were the trucks made of a solid piece of lumber, or were they built up using boards as lined in the photo??

Gene Bodnar

Tue Oct 20 2015, 09:18pm

Registered Member #126

Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20am
Posts: 1776

Tom,

On the one on the Philadelphia, the sides were made of two pieces (as I lined in the 3rd photo) that were doweled in two places and bolted from the top down (I show one bolt in the first photo, and the second will come later.

You're right, some were made with multiple pieces either doweled or bolted together.

Gene

Gene Bodnar

Thu Oct 22 2015, 09:36am

Registered Member #126

Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20am
Posts: 1776

The barrel:
The barrel was turned on a lathe to the correct size from a 1 1/8” by 7” piece of wood. The various rings around the barrel were simulated from several widths of strips of frog tape. Both ends of the barrel consist of numerous layers of card that was punched with successively smaller and smaller sizes. The capsquare is also a strip of card. The joint bolt is made of 1/32” basswood, while the eyebolts are 16-gauge black wire. The cascabel was turned from a 3/8” dowel and glued on the end. The trunnion is a 5/16” dowel passed through the barrel. A 5/16” bore was drilled about 3” into the barrel. Finally, the entire assembly was given two coats of flat black acrylic paint and glued onto the carriage.

Tackle blocks:
Based on the scale dimensions shown on a chart on the plans, two double blocks and 4 single blocks were made of basswood and given a boat of Natural Stain.

Gene Bodnar

Fri Oct 23 2015, 11:30am

Registered Member #126

Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20am
Posts: 1776

Rigging the tackle for the 12-pounder:

The train tackle must be rigging first, mainly because the single block is tied to an eye on the underside of the carriage and cannot be reached if the other tackle is rigged first. Place a hook in the double block, and hook it to the eye at the aft end of the gun tracks. Using a needle and the proper size running rigging thread, rig the train tackle, coiling the end in a few loops on the port side of the gun tracks.
Next, rig the breeching rope, seizing it to one of the ringbolts, turning it around the cascabel, and seizing it to the other ringbolt. The breeching rope should be somewhat loose, as shown in the photo.
Finally, rig the side tackle, using the eyes adjacent to the ringbolts. The side tackle ends with a counterclockwise coil of rope on the deck.